The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) will not hold daily online briefing on the updates of Covid-19 situation in the country from today.

Professor Dr Nasima Sultana, additional director general of the DGHS said this at a briefing in the capital on Tuesday. However, press releases containing necessary information will continue to be issued from the DGHS.

Meanwhile, the indomitable novel coronavirus has taken the lives of 33 more people in Bangladesh raising the total to 3,471. In addition, the bug has infected 2,996 more individuals too surging the total to 263,503.Bangladesh is now the 15th worst affected country in the world in terms of the number of cases.

The position is one step ahead of Argentina and one step behind Pakistan, according to worldometer.info.

Professor Dr Nasima Sultana said, ''As many as 14,820 samples were tested in 86 authorized labs throughout the country in the past 24 hours. Of them, 2,996 were found to be Covid-19 positive.'' The death rate now stands at 1.32 percent and the infection rate has reached 20.22 percent. Of the 33 fresh fatalities, 28 were male and five were female.

 As per age categories, one was between 11-20 years old, five within 31-40, two between 41-50, five within 51-60, 14 between 61-70, three within 71-80 and three were from 81 to 90 years old, said the DGHS official.Professor Nasima Sultana went on to add, ''A total of 1,535 more patients have made recoveries in the past 24 hours taking the number to 151,972. The recovery rate is now 57.67 percent.''

The deadly Covid-19 has spread to all 64 districts in Bangladesh. The country reported its first case of the virus on March 8 while the first death was recorded on March 18.

The killer virus, which broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year, has so far killed at least 739,700 people across the globe. It has infected more than 20,281,000 people in 213 countries and territories plus two international conveyances.

The USA is the worst-hit country with at least 166,200 deaths and more than 5,251,000 infections. Brazil has the second highest number of infections with 3,057,000 cases. The country has so far recorded at least 101,800 deaths. India has counted at least 2,271,000 infections and 45,300 deaths. Russia has counted at least 897,000 cases to date and 15,100 deaths.

The UK has counted at last 46,500 deaths, the highest in Europe, followed by Italy with at least 35,200 casualties. France has lost at least 30,300 people followed by Spain with at least 28,500 fatalities while Iran has counted at least 18,800 fatalities.Belgium has so far reported more than 9,800 deaths, followed by Germany with no fewer than 9,200 fatalities.

Canada has lost at least 8,900 citizens followed by the Netherlands with at least 6,100 casualties. China, the epicenter of the virus, has so far recoded as many as 4,600 fatalities. Pakistan has so far reported at least 6,100 deaths. Sri Lanka has recorded only 11 deaths and 2,875 infections.The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the Covid-19 a pandemic. The outbreak of the virus has brought almost the entire world to a standstill.